Automattic / Automattic/jetpack

Beautiful Math: add option to use MathJax to render equations

Open
#17,400 1 comment 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
[Feature] Beautiful Math [Pri] Low Enhancement Good For Community
Dominant language
PHP
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

We currently use our own in-house solution to render mathematical equations in our Beautiful Math feature:
https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/blob/5cc6362baaacae743fca7bf2ddc96fc7548df5fd/modules/latex.php#L1-L12

It would be nice if we could switch to [MathJax](https://www.mathjax.org/) instead, since the library is more recent, and offers more flexibility and options than ours.

- This would have to be done while staying compatible with existing equations, so as to not break things for folks who have been using Beautiful Math until today.
- We would have to load the MathJax library, and not include it in the plugin itself.

Here is a first exploration on how this could be done: #2685

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Related discussions:
- https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/issues/17347#issuecomment-702730816
- p2y3YZ-4cV-p2

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Review modules/latex.php and the prior exploration in #2685 first. Trace how existing equations are handled and where the external MathJax library would be loaded. Done means existing equations remain compatible and MathJax is loaded externally rather than bundled in the plugin.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, php
Domain
frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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